The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-07-05
An Unsupplied Demand for Men

The opening OF the season at the sea
side and mountain resorts again renews
the complaint that has become chronic
of late years. Of the scarcity of men,
Ladies are more numerous than ever,
many of them young, beautiful, accom-
plished, wealthy. Even such attractions
do not draw the men; they still con-
tnue the stubbornest kind of absenlees.
They are become pleasing reminis.
cence q tradition almost rs fabulous as
the centaur and the unicorn and almost
rs extinct as the dodo. They are de-
lightful recollection; for, though their
voices were harsh, their movements
somewhat awkward and heavy, and
their taste, in matters of silk and rob-
bon, insull'erably barbarous, yet, like
Byron's ocean, they were "pleasing
terror" and had good points" about
them after all. So, here at the noun
tain and seacoast, is phenomenon that
economists might do we'll to examine
a demand without supply; an ungrat-
flied desire for that obsolcscent genus
man.
1t seems in many ways men are
ignorant of their true market values.
There has grown up co mplaint dur
ing the last few years that men do
not go into society. The virile, brany
man. of originality and achievement,
such rs women admire and respect, is
seldom seen at parties and SOireeS and
teas. The antipathy OF the average
man to fashionable weddings is well
known. In short, the average man is
careless of social conventionalities, and
is apt to be shy of all elaborate society
displays. In his confidential mood he
confesses that he does not feel ut ONE
amid such surroundings. Women are
punctllous as TO social requirements,
but they are growing tired of the soci-
ty of dudes and the perfumed mascu-
line exquisites who frequent the resorts
of fashion and society They are not men,
they not are women; they are merely
non-descript eXpedents arrayed in a
modification of the masculine appa rel.
Another fact that has been frequent
ly commented upon is the relatively
small number of men VIII attend
church. Probably thr ee-fourths of the
average Sunday congregation is femln-
inc. Go in almost any church, and
YOU will see but few men. You will
see an occasional masculine head half
hidden amid the towering luXuriance
of millinery; but it is in lonesome
minority.
So it seems pertinent TO inquire the
cause of this paucity of the masculine
element in our social, recreational and
religious life The census tells us that
there is but small percentage of
women born in excess of men. Are
men becoming hermits or dying Off
It is sensible to infer that men are
not found in society, at the summer
resort or at the church, because they
do not find what they really need in
those places. Recreation at the sea-
shore for two or three months in the
summer is dawdling and wasteful ex-
penditure of time that no man, not
given to intellectual sluggishness, can
tolerate. Society does not interest the
avarage man, because it is not really
helpful to him mentally or, in the
highest sense of the word, socially. Ii
is too superlical--to much matter
of visits, formality and etiquitte 10 take
any hold upon q serious nature. Men
absent themselves from church because
the church, in many cases, does not
meet the needs of the modern man.
He is just as religious as ever, and, in
spite OF the wall of the pessmist, is
far more moral. But there are new
forces and theories in the modern in
telectual world which many of the
churches ignore; theories and forces
which arouse doubt aud questions
which the old sermon does not
answer.
In the last quarter century there
have been vast strides in the scientific
and philosophc department OF thought.
which profoundly stirred the keenest
and best minds of the world--new
theories and ideas which impinge upon
the domain of the theologian, but
which the average clergyman either
studiously ignores, or treats with i'll